In The Passionate Teacher, Ron Fried describes the Game of School (GOS) as what happens when teachers and students forsake intellectual work and instead engage in their classes as rituals. Take this opportunity to consider this chapter in light of some of the the other experiences that you've had this semester to answer at least three of the following questions:
What elements of the game of school are you seeing in your placements?
How have you seen teachers fight the game of school in their classes?
What features can you plan into your units that might discourage the GOS?
Finally, what impact will this description of the GOS have on your own approach to teaching as expressed in your teaching philosophy?
As describe in the reading, I was one of those students who did the least amount of work possible and the teacher never knew. I completed my work just enough so I was never called on yet never fully completed the assignment. I fully accepted and played the game of school as I was growing up. However, being in Mr. Zabel's class is a whole different experience because I compare my high school teachers to him and realize where they went wrong. He tries to eliminate even the possibility of the game occurring. The projects and homework he assigns aren't just so he can say they have homework. I've realized he rarely gives homework unless it directly relates to the core of the lesson. Unlike in my classes where I was told to read, and never did, he assigns maybe a total of three pages of reading with note taking which then get graded. Graded, is a loosely based term in his class. Seeing his point breakdown is amazing, yet his students never realize their note taking homework is a mere five points. But in high school hearing the term "graded" puts pressure on the students to do it. Reading the assignment for homework didn't directly effect my grades so I put it off for later and my teacher never knew. Recently he has me grade a project and it the grading was so loose but his reasoning was that he wanted the students to learn the cycles by creating them on their own. He explained his students learned better with this project in conjunction with his instruction instead of just his instruction.
In his last period biology class, which is always last period, I see a struggle with his students because the class is so large. The kids are hyped up on sugar after lunch and the class is always a mess, every day, no matter what. In this class he struggles to get through the coursework of his smaller class. It pains him but some days they spend way too much time on a certain topic no matter how many time or different ways he tries to explain it. In this case he caves and moves on because he is so far behind. I've talked to him after class and he hates to do it. He wishes he had all the time in the world to answer ever students question and make sure every student understands. He fights the game of school every time he has this class.
I haven't figured out how I am going to accomplish what I envision for my lesson plan but I plan to "trick" the learning into an engaging activity. I can't count the number of times I have been given a worksheet where I read a page and then answer the questions. I find the questions in the reading, copy them down, and turn it in. Ask me to explain what I wrote down and I can't because I just copied. I want to create an activity where, in order to complete it, students understand the lesson. I think where this can be done is in the probability unit in Mendel. I'm working on an activity where you work in pairs and have popsicle sticks and you make your own "baby." However, this baby is all due to the combination in which the popsicle sticks land. What is the statistics of the baby having blue eyes? Then show me, how many times does the baby have blue eyes if you roll those popsicle sticks ten times?
As describe in the reading, I was one of those students who did the least amount of work possible and the teacher never knew. I completed my work just enough so I was never called on yet never fully completed the assignment. I fully accepted and played the game of school as I was growing up. However, being in Mr. Zabel's class is a whole different experience because I compare my high school teachers to him and realize where they went wrong. He tries to eliminate even the possibility of the game occurring. The projects and homework he assigns aren't just so he can say they have homework. I've realized he rarely gives homework unless it directly relates to the core of the lesson. Unlike in my classes where I was told to read, and never did, he assigns maybe a total of three pages of reading with note taking which then get graded. Graded, is a loosely based term in his class. Seeing his point breakdown is amazing, yet his students never realize their note taking homework is a mere five points. But in high school hearing the term "graded" puts pressure on the students to do it. Reading the assignment for homework didn't directly effect my grades so I put it off for later and my teacher never knew. Recently he has me grade a project and it the grading was so loose but his reasoning was that he wanted the students to learn the cycles by creating them on their own. He explained his students learned better with this project in conjunction with his instruction instead of just his instruction.
In his last period biology class, which is always last period, I see a struggle with his students because the class is so large. The kids are hyped up on sugar after lunch and the class is always a mess, every day, no matter what. In this class he struggles to get through the coursework of his smaller class. It pains him but some days they spend way too much time on a certain topic no matter how many time or different ways he tries to explain it. In this case he caves and moves on because he is so far behind. I've talked to him after class and he hates to do it. He wishes he had all the time in the world to answer ever students question and make sure every student understands. He fights the game of school every time he has this class.
I haven't figured out how I am going to accomplish what I envision for my lesson plan but I plan to "trick" the learning into an engaging activity. I can't count the number of times I have been given a worksheet where I read a page and then answer the questions. I find the questions in the reading, copy them down, and turn it in. Ask me to explain what I wrote down and I can't because I just copied. I want to create an activity where, in order to complete it, students understand the lesson. I think where this can be done is in the probability unit in Mendel. I'm working on an activity where you work in pairs and have popsicle sticks and you make your own "baby." However, this baby is all due to the combination in which the popsicle sticks land. What is the statistics of the baby having blue eyes? Then show me, how many times does the baby have blue eyes if you roll those popsicle sticks ten times?